In New Zealand we call it Paua, and our variety is more colourful than the USA Abalone. We have excess of the shells. Perhaps Jean Larrivee needs to check this out. The NZ paua is quite special. The Paua meat is delicious. It has it's own taste. I like it in fritters.

I fished for abalone (free diving) in CA with my brotherbut we got skunked. Had fun in the cold kelp-y water though.Ate some that others had caught.It's good, mollusk-y and chewy, but nothing I couldn't live without.

Abalone overfishing is a serious problem because of their low reproductive success rate;ie, it takes a large population of abalone to maintain their population.That equals a low take rate so it's easy to exceed.I don't doubt that coastal water warming may also be a challenge for the CA population.

I fished for abalone (free diving) in CA with my brotherbut we got skunked. Had fun in the cold kelp-y water though.Ate some that others had caught.It's good, mollusk-y and chewy, but nothing I couldn't live without.

Abalone overfishing is a serious problem because of their low reproductive success rate;ie, it takes a large population of abalone to maintain their population.That equals a low take rate so it's easy to exceed.I don't doubt that coastal water warming may also be a challenge for the CA population.

And what the Fukushima power plant leaks will do remains to be seen. The whole Pacific is affected with higher than normal radiation. How individual species will react is anyones guess...

^True, but put Fukushima into perspective.Fukushima released less radiation than Chernobyl.Chernobyl released much much less than the Hiroshima bomb.Between 1946 and 1962, the US conducted 105 atmospheric and underwater nuclear weapon tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds,each much larger than Hiroshima.

This comparison is intentionally oversimplified, mea culpa, but wanted to give some scale of reference. Also, not saying good or bad, just relative.

^True, but put Fukushima into perspective.Fukushima released less radiation than Chernobyl.Chernobyl released much much less than the Hiroshima bomb.Between 1946 and 1962, the US conducted 105 atmospheric and underwater nuclear weapon tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds,each much larger than Hiroshima.

This comparison is intentionally oversimplified, mea culpa, but wanted to give some scale of reference. Also, not saying good or bad, just relative.

Yeah, the initial output was less, but it's still leaking.

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Whew. How did we get from abalone diving to this?

Why abalone, and more generally all sorts of natural materials, are being banned from trade.